Wednesday, June 15, 2005

GOP Targets International Red Cross...

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby against U.S. interests.

The Senate Republican Policy Committee, which advances the views of the GOP Senate majority, said in a report that the international humanitarian organization had "lost its way" and veered from the impartiality on which its reputation was based. The Republican policy group titled its report: "Are American Interests Being Disserved by the International Committee of the Red Cross?"

Who could have been surprised by this move? The Bush Administration seems to like having these agencies around so he can use them to inflate himself or his policies but when they do not tote the official Bush propaganda they are deemed an enemy.

Again..."if you aren't with us, you are against us.

The congressional criticism follows reports by the Swiss-based group that have faulted U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A spokeswoman at its Geneva headquarters said the organization was reviewing the report and would not comment, in accordance with its policy of keeping its dealings with governments confidential.

Two Bush administration officials declined in interviews to endorse the findings of the report but said the administration had had "concerns" about some positions taken by the ICRC since the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

It is very well know by now that the US HAS UNDOUBTEDLY VIOLATED THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS IN THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. I believe the pictures from Abu Graib and the Army's own reports prove that without a doubt. According to Bush and Co., we have been unfairly accused of the violations.

The ICRC is the only organization mandated by international treaty to monitor the observance of the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners, and it has the right to visit prisoners. But the GOP report charges that the group has exceeded the bounds of its mission by trying to "reinterpret and expand international law" in favor of terrorists and insurgents; lobbying for arms-control issues that are not within its mandate, such as a ban on the use of land mines; and "inaccurately and unfairly" accusing U.S. officials of not adhering to the Geneva Convention.

What kind of drugs are these people on I wonder? Lobbying for arms control would stop people from being poisoned with Depleted Uranium if successful and trying to ban land mines is a serious no brainer. How about we let the children of the GOP run out to play where there have been mines planted. DUH!

The Senate aide denied that the report, released Monday, was motivated by a desire to punish the ICRC for embarrassing the United States on its treatment of prisoners. In the aftermath of the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and elsewhere, the role of the ICRC has grown in importance, some experts said.

The more they say it ain't so...the more it seems to be.

To attempt to punish the ICRC would be doing a major disservice to the world...and that means us as well.

"For U.S. military commanders, the ICRC is crucial as their feedback loop," said Ruth Wedgwood, a specialist in international law at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. "That's how a commander knows what's happening down in their ranks — even on the night shift. We really do need that function. That's why we pay them a lot of money — not just to assist on tsunamis."

The GOP need to get over it...the American Empire is crumbling. The US is crumbling. Trying to control everything in the world with threats of less funding when they disagree with us is obvious to the world.

The GOP has turned the US into a laughing stock of arrogant stupidity.

A coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups announced a campaign today to urge that the U.S. Congress launch a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.